As more and more businesses shift their infrastructure to the cloud, enterprises are looking beyond initial adoption and trying to figure out what they'll actually do with the cloud-based platform they've invested in—and how to monetize it.

Of the 3,400 businesses surveyed in a new Cisco-sponsored International Data Corporation (IDC) study, 44 percent are currently using or planning to implement private clouds, 37 percent are leveraging public clouds, and 64 percent of adopters are using hybrid cloud architectures—which combine public and on-premises private cloud infrastructure.

Adoption numbers aren't yet overpowering, but the arrow is trending up. Enterprises recognize that the cloud is the future, as 53 percent of companies expect it to drive increased revenue over the next two years. Cisco offers a slew of cloud products and services, including the Cisco OpenStack Private Cloud—a distribution to which the sponsored survey predictably pays particular attention—and Internet of Things systems, and it believes this "second wave" of cloud adopters are considering the technology for more granular budgeting, faster provisioning, cost reduction, and potential revenue growth.

"We all know that cloud is a significant disruption to the classic IT model," Nick Earle, Cisco's Senior Vice President of Global Cloud and Managed Services Sales, wrote in a blog post. "But when CIOs embrace a diversified IT services provisioning model that includes cloud, they reinforce the central role of IT as an engine to fuel new revenues, market disruption, and innovation for the business. The business becomes the disruptor, not the disrupted."

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In IDC's industry breakdown of cloud adoption, 33 percent comes from manufacturing, 30 percent from IT, 29 percent from finance, and 28 percent from healthcare. The study interviewed director-level and above respondents from a global sample of 19,080 enterprise executives responsible for IT decision-making.

Among the organizations already running advanced cloud deployments, the study shows the businesses gaining an average of $1.6 million in additional revenue for each deployed application, along with $1.2 million in cost reduction. As this second wave progresses, IDC predicts web-scale public cloud making way for enterprise-class "provider-based cloud."

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